We look forward to hearing your story.

15: Story Night of Champions 2015

Every Story Night is a night to remember, but this one was extra special. We took our winners and a couple of others who had done well in the past year and put on a “Story Night of Champions.”

At the end we not only crowned the monthly winner, Josh Farley, we handed out a trophy to our “Storyteller of the Year,” Alison Loris. The night’s stories played a hand in creating the overall award winner, but Alison went into the night with a pretty big lead, based on her three wins and her participation at 11 different Story Night events.

The Kitsap Regional Library Friends of the Sylvan Way branch provided gift cards to our seven storytellers. Library staff also recorded the night’s evening. As soon as that becomes available we’ll post it here.

Thank you all for taking part in the Story Night events and for listening here. Thank you to my friends at the library, particularly Sarah Jaffa and Megan May, for all the work you’ve done to help us succeed. When we started we were drawing between 20 and 30 people a night. Now we’re getting 50 or more most nights, and I owe the library crew for most of that. Thanks again to Josh Farley for giving me the push to get this started and for getting the momentum going at first. Thanks to Diana Gardner, my wife, for the photographs from the events, for helping get friends and family to the event and for not resenting my wish to do this in the first place. Thanks to the Cloverleaf for providing a great venue even during football season. Thanks to the Manette Saloon for giving us our first home. Thanks to Mike Bishop for being our most frequent math wiz. Thank you to Alison Loris, for believing in Story Night enough to speak every month. She told me she feels a little obliged to speak, because she wants to make sure Story Night continues. I’d love for her to not feel obligated, but I appreciate that commitment.

This has been a blast. And it continues next month. On Jan. 7, 2016 we are back. The theme will be “Fear of …” We look forward to hearing your story.